Types of Search Engines

Search Engines are World Wide Web sites that provide catalogs or indexes of the contents of other Web sites and allow you to search for relevant words or phrases

There are many kinds of Search Engines. The major categories of search engines are:

Primary Search Engines scan entire sections of the World Wide Web and produce their results from databases of Web page content, automatically created by computers.
Metasearch Engines search, accumulate and screen the results of multiple Primary Search Engines (i.e. they are search engines that search search engines)
Some of these search engines generate their own search results and others "buy" the search technology and results.

Subject Guides are like indexes in the back of a book. They involve human intervention in selecting and organizing resources, so they cover fewer resources and topics but provide more focus and guidance
People Search Engines search for names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Some can do "reverse" searches
Business and Services Search Engines are essentially national yellow page directories
Employment and Job Search Engines either (a) provide potential employers access to resumes of people interested in working for them or (b) provides prospective employees with information on job availability
Finance-Oriented Search Engines facilitate searches for specific information about companies (officers, annual reports, SEC filings, etc.)
News Search Engines search newspaper and news web site archives for the selected information
Image Search Engines which help you search the WWW for images of all kinds.
Specialized Search Engines that will search specialized databases, allow you to enter your search terms in a particularly easy way, look for low prices on items you are interested in purchasing, and even give you access to real, live human beings to answer your questions.